Rome Archaeological Area: overview

Here you have an overview about the archaelogical area of Rome. Here you find the ancient Rome heritage beginning with the Coliseum. An astonishing tour in the roots of the western culture.

Coliseum
Architectural marvel of antiquity and symbol of the Eternal City throughout the world, the Flavian Amphitheatre is the largest structure for entertainment with gladiators and wild animals ever built by the Romans. Erected in 8 years (72-80 AD) by the Flavian dynasty on the place previously occupied by the artificial lake of Nero’s Golden House, using 100.000 square metres of travertine and 300 tons of iron, the Colosseum was inaugurated with 100 days of games. The 60.000 spectators that it could hold entered through the 80 numbered arches at street level and, after spending the entire day there, could leave in under 20 minutes. The programme offered hunts with wild animals in the morning, executions of condemned criminals at midday and gladiator combat in the afternoon, and in warm weather the audience was protected from the sun by a awning consisting of 240 sails maneuvered by sailors of the imperial fleet. The underground section at the centre of the arena was used to keep the cages with the animals and the equipment for the games. The floor was placed above that and was made of wooden flanks covered with a layer of sand. Walking through the corridors of the Colosseum today we cannot help but notice its ambiguous and almost paradoxical attraction as, on one hand it seems to represent the best of the Roman civilization in the grandiosity of its architecture, and on the other it seems to express its darker side in the cruelty of the shows that were offered here.In the Middle Ages the Colosseum was transformed into a fortress and later used as a quarry of building material. The iron clamps that held the blocks of travertine together were extracted and melted down for other purposes, leaving the holes that are visible throughout the structure.

Suggestion: in order to avoid the long lines, it is possible to purchase tickets at the entrance to Palatine in Via di San Gregorio and by the Arch of Titus.

The Roman Forum
The Roman Forum is the most important archaeological area in the city, the ideal place to understand that having a “historical sense” means, as the great writer T.S. Eliot says, feeling that the people of the past are our contemporaries. The Forum was the centre of the public life of the ancient city; it developed after the reclaiming of the marshy valley that extended from the Palatine and Capitoline hills in the 7th century BC and the last monument – the commemorative column of the emperor Phocas – was erected there in the 7th century AC, exactly 1200 years later.This was where the political, religious and commercial activities of ancient Rome took place. We must use our imagination to recreate it as it must have been at the time, full of buildings and people from all over the empire who, just like us today, wanted to see the symbol of the incredible adventure that had led a community of shepherds to become owners of the world. The Romans charged their buildings with an important function of propagandistic communication, aiming at producing in the viewer a sense of admiration mixed with fear. We find basilicas for business meetings and for the administration of justice, the Curia, seat of the Senate, temples, triumphal arches, monuments and statues. The area was crossed by the Via Sacra which was used for religious processions and triumphal parades. With the passing of time and the increase in the population, the area was extended with the addition of Imperial Forums that also contributed in stressing the greatness of the empire. Later, as decline set in, the Forum was abandoned and used as a source of building material. When the first archaeological excavations began in the late 18th century, its monuments, by then mostly underground, had been invaded by cattle and flocks and used as pasture land.

Piazza del Campidoglio
Ancient seat of the most important temple of the state cult and symbol of Rome “caput mundi”, the Campidoglio has always maintained its importance in the life of the city as centre of the City Government since the 12th century and with the presence of the Capitoline Museums, the most ancient in the world. The square, considered one of the most elegant in Europe, was designed by Michelangelo who created the splendid access ramp, new facades for the preexisting buildings (Palazzo Senatorio at the centre and the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the right), and added the Palazzo Nuovo on the left, giving it the trapezoidal shape that never fails to communicate a sense of harmony and equilibrium to visitors. The orientation of the square helps us understand the evolution of the city that at Michelangelo’s time had already turned its back to the remains of ancient Rome, the place of the past, of a historical phase that was concluded, to face the new centre of power and rule of the day, the Vatican.

The original of the bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, whose copy is placed at the centre of the square is preserved in the Museum and escaped destruction in later times only because the personage on horseback was identified with Constantine, the first Christian emperor.

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